I just thought I would like to update my readers (all 2 of them - thanks Gareth and Charlie) on an issue I covered a week or so ago. Goodwill Jenny had a meeting with HR and our Customer Service Manager on Wednesday to discuss changing her shift pattern. She had already been allowed to leave work an hour early on the Monday to ensure her young daughter got to bed on time and she left the meeting feeling optimistic. On Wednesday evening, she went home at her usual time (her fiancé is at home on Wednesdays and their daughter is usually a good girl for him). The little minx poked her head round the door to check her Mum had got home but there were no problems putting her to bed. On Friday she was told that she could change her shift pattern and when she passed the news onto me you should have seen her little face! So all's well that ends well. I just wish they could have done this back in November.
She starts her maternity leave in four weeks and our managers have finally asked her to train other Admin staff on her duties. I know that we are going to miss her. She is a very capable young woman and accomplishes a great deal in the time she's at work. She is also very determined and has a strong will, which she needs in her job because of the many little squabbles with the Complaints Department at our sister company over which side should deal with which complaints. I get the feeling our side is going to be lumbered with more complaints than we should be after she leaves. Well, only time will tell.
Saturday, 24 February 2007
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
Jester and the Jokes
A long time ago a grizzled and wise old policeman announced to a group of his colleagues: "The problem here is too many people treat this joke as a job." Actually, it was a few years ago, my husband was present and the policeman in question is not much older than my husband and not at all grizzled but the saying is continually springing to my mind at the moment.
I may have mentioned it once or twice: I work in a complaints department. The emphasis is on closing complaints by phone - it's quicker and adds the personal touch. However, we are unable to force our customers to make complaints by phone, they do frequently insist on writing in and we often have to respond in writing, although we prefer not to.
All of their letters are scanned onto our computer system and there is a useful little window where you can see the scanned image of the letter. There is an even more useful button in the window with a picture of a printer on it, which you can use to print off the images so you can read the letter and scribble notes on it. This is great when it works but at the moment it doesn't. Well, it does for a few. Well, part of it does for a few and all it does for even fewer.
On Tuesday and yesterday, I was one of the few people - about 5 or 6 - in the department (we number about 40 people at present) who could see the images. I was also one of the elite who could see the images and had the computer hooked up to a printer that works. We have three printers in the department; all Science Museum material: two of them work but only one of them is reliable. So I was very popular indeed.
Yesterday, they took one of our servers down for maintenance. I logged onto one of the other 3. Well, on the third attempt I did, anyway, and I could now no longer view images. I can still print, so I can write letters but I can't see my customers' letters. Oh and I can't attach my own letters to the complaint log. It transpires that view customers' letters and attaching ours run off the same piece of faulty software. We have to attach our letters to be FSA compliant.
So we, temporarily at least, had a complaints department where we were unable to see our customers' letters or, in the majority of cases, print our own. Which brings me back to the grizzled old policeman. I really do have to agree with him when it comes to the Dark Satanic Mill: Too many people treat this joke as a job.
One last laugh. Our hardware may date from ante-diluvian times and our software may be rubbish but at least we don't the laughable computer systems my husband has to work with. Yet again, the police beats the insurance industry to first place in the god-awful employers stakes.
I may have mentioned it once or twice: I work in a complaints department. The emphasis is on closing complaints by phone - it's quicker and adds the personal touch. However, we are unable to force our customers to make complaints by phone, they do frequently insist on writing in and we often have to respond in writing, although we prefer not to.
All of their letters are scanned onto our computer system and there is a useful little window where you can see the scanned image of the letter. There is an even more useful button in the window with a picture of a printer on it, which you can use to print off the images so you can read the letter and scribble notes on it. This is great when it works but at the moment it doesn't. Well, it does for a few. Well, part of it does for a few and all it does for even fewer.
On Tuesday and yesterday, I was one of the few people - about 5 or 6 - in the department (we number about 40 people at present) who could see the images. I was also one of the elite who could see the images and had the computer hooked up to a printer that works. We have three printers in the department; all Science Museum material: two of them work but only one of them is reliable. So I was very popular indeed.
Yesterday, they took one of our servers down for maintenance. I logged onto one of the other 3. Well, on the third attempt I did, anyway, and I could now no longer view images. I can still print, so I can write letters but I can't see my customers' letters. Oh and I can't attach my own letters to the complaint log. It transpires that view customers' letters and attaching ours run off the same piece of faulty software. We have to attach our letters to be FSA compliant.
So we, temporarily at least, had a complaints department where we were unable to see our customers' letters or, in the majority of cases, print our own. Which brings me back to the grizzled old policeman. I really do have to agree with him when it comes to the Dark Satanic Mill: Too many people treat this joke as a job.
One last laugh. Our hardware may date from ante-diluvian times and our software may be rubbish but at least we don't the laughable computer systems my husband has to work with. Yet again, the police beats the insurance industry to first place in the god-awful employers stakes.
Sunday, 18 February 2007
Jester, Jeannie and the Missing Post
I said in my last post that there have been rumblings of discontent at the Dark Satanic Mill over two issues and covered the first in that blog. The second issue is one that I find very disturbing because it involves the bullying of a young team member by one of our managers.
I think it would be a good idea to give a little background here. The manager in question, Fran, has been promoted from the ranks as it were. A couple of years ago, she was a level 1 complaints handler and our department was having a crisis. Our manager had gone off sick with stress because he had been expected to deal with an unreasonable workload and when he had been unable to cope, instead of receiving support, he just got more hassle from his bosses. We were then, as I used to enjoy saying, rudderless.
This girl took over some of the administrative tasks because somebody needed to do them. She also made a great fuss about doing it in a "Hey! Look at me!" sort of a way. Other members of the team, including yours truly, carried on with our work and took on some extra responsibilities so they would get done but did not make a big fuss about it.
This girl came to the notice of the Fat Controller, our Customer Services Director, and he liked her style. Suddenly, she was surrounded by grateful directors, praising her for running the department single-handed, and was even given a Gold Award for Achievement, a very rare honour indeed.
At her next Performance Development Review, she leap-frogged Level 2 handler to Level 3 and her star was now clearly in the ascendant. She had previously applied for Trainee Team Manager but had been rejected because she was too aggressive. Now the Fat Controller asked her to apply again and this time she sailed through the application process and then the training period.
She is now a manager in our department and I really hate to say this because I like her as a person but she is not a good manager at all. She is aggressive in her dealings with her staff, too many of her decisions about complaints do not make any sense and it seems that her knowledge of some of our policies is pretty poor. Worst by far, though, is how she bullies weaker members of the team.
Which brings me to my present gripe. Her treatment of the daughter of my good friend and "adopted" little sister, Goodwill Jessica. Jessica's daughter, Jeannie, is only 17 and it is a marvellous achievement for her to get a job in our department when there must have been other candidates with more experience. It must have been a blinder of an application and interview. Now, please do not be cynical and say that she only got the job because she is Jessica's daughter. What kind of company do you think I work for?
Well, she got the job and she started work and what a lovely girl she is! Everybody loves her. She's a hard worker, pleasant company and just generally a nice kid. So why would anyone want to bully her? Because she doesn't work hard enough? But she does so much work and keeps her head down. She doesn't join in with the general gossip and chatter that goes on in our department, she just works. Unfortunately, her manager seems to think that she should be able to do more and do it faster and tells her off for not doing enough.
On Friday, the post for 14 February went missing and Jeannie was at the photocopier doing one of her myriad Admin tasks. Fran shouted from her desk for Jeannie to stop what she was doing immediately and go and look for it. That may not, on the face of it, seem too bad but in conjunction with everything else, the poor girl ended up in tears. If it wasn't where it was supposed to be, then where was it going to be and how was she going to find it?
The answer was simple, really. My friend, Jenny, e-mailed the whole department asking if anybody had removed it. When she got no response, she looked in the filing cabinet herself and found it, not far from where it should be, with the post for 15 February. It had been put back by some nameless member of the department in the wrong place. This begs the question. Surely the person who reported it missing could have done the same thing and found it and avoided all the heartache and who had put it in the wrong place anyway? My bet is that it was not a member of the Admin team.
I e-mailed the head of our department after that incident. I did not mention it specifically but just told her that I think too many people in our department undervalue our Admin Team and it would be nice for them to get some public recognition for the superb job they do. I blind-copied in Jenny, Jessica and Jeannie.
I hope they do get the recognition they deserve. It really is about time, after all. I also hope that Fran can improve her management skills. I'm not going to hold my breath though.
I think it would be a good idea to give a little background here. The manager in question, Fran, has been promoted from the ranks as it were. A couple of years ago, she was a level 1 complaints handler and our department was having a crisis. Our manager had gone off sick with stress because he had been expected to deal with an unreasonable workload and when he had been unable to cope, instead of receiving support, he just got more hassle from his bosses. We were then, as I used to enjoy saying, rudderless.
This girl took over some of the administrative tasks because somebody needed to do them. She also made a great fuss about doing it in a "Hey! Look at me!" sort of a way. Other members of the team, including yours truly, carried on with our work and took on some extra responsibilities so they would get done but did not make a big fuss about it.
This girl came to the notice of the Fat Controller, our Customer Services Director, and he liked her style. Suddenly, she was surrounded by grateful directors, praising her for running the department single-handed, and was even given a Gold Award for Achievement, a very rare honour indeed.
At her next Performance Development Review, she leap-frogged Level 2 handler to Level 3 and her star was now clearly in the ascendant. She had previously applied for Trainee Team Manager but had been rejected because she was too aggressive. Now the Fat Controller asked her to apply again and this time she sailed through the application process and then the training period.
She is now a manager in our department and I really hate to say this because I like her as a person but she is not a good manager at all. She is aggressive in her dealings with her staff, too many of her decisions about complaints do not make any sense and it seems that her knowledge of some of our policies is pretty poor. Worst by far, though, is how she bullies weaker members of the team.
Which brings me to my present gripe. Her treatment of the daughter of my good friend and "adopted" little sister, Goodwill Jessica. Jessica's daughter, Jeannie, is only 17 and it is a marvellous achievement for her to get a job in our department when there must have been other candidates with more experience. It must have been a blinder of an application and interview. Now, please do not be cynical and say that she only got the job because she is Jessica's daughter. What kind of company do you think I work for?
Well, she got the job and she started work and what a lovely girl she is! Everybody loves her. She's a hard worker, pleasant company and just generally a nice kid. So why would anyone want to bully her? Because she doesn't work hard enough? But she does so much work and keeps her head down. She doesn't join in with the general gossip and chatter that goes on in our department, she just works. Unfortunately, her manager seems to think that she should be able to do more and do it faster and tells her off for not doing enough.
On Friday, the post for 14 February went missing and Jeannie was at the photocopier doing one of her myriad Admin tasks. Fran shouted from her desk for Jeannie to stop what she was doing immediately and go and look for it. That may not, on the face of it, seem too bad but in conjunction with everything else, the poor girl ended up in tears. If it wasn't where it was supposed to be, then where was it going to be and how was she going to find it?
The answer was simple, really. My friend, Jenny, e-mailed the whole department asking if anybody had removed it. When she got no response, she looked in the filing cabinet herself and found it, not far from where it should be, with the post for 15 February. It had been put back by some nameless member of the department in the wrong place. This begs the question. Surely the person who reported it missing could have done the same thing and found it and avoided all the heartache and who had put it in the wrong place anyway? My bet is that it was not a member of the Admin team.
I e-mailed the head of our department after that incident. I did not mention it specifically but just told her that I think too many people in our department undervalue our Admin Team and it would be nice for them to get some public recognition for the superb job they do. I blind-copied in Jenny, Jessica and Jeannie.
I hope they do get the recognition they deserve. It really is about time, after all. I also hope that Fran can improve her management skills. I'm not going to hold my breath though.
Friday, 16 February 2007
Jester, Jennifer and Maternity Rights
There were more rumblings of discontent at the Dark Satanic Mill yesterday. This time over two issues. I love the word "issues"; we use it so much in our line of work - "We will feed back the issues you have raised to the appropriate manager..." You know, that sort of thing.
Well, these issues are very close to my heart because they involve a very good friend of mine and the daughter of another very good friend. They have both roused me from my usual apathy and driven me to act! Hopefully, my actions will help them out, if only a little.
Let's start with Goodwill Jennifer. She sits next to me at work. She covers a very awkward shift, 11am - 8pm, which is invaluable to our bosses and also to me and my co-workers because we only need work one of those shifts per week. Jenny is pregnant and she's blooming. She suits pregnancy so well but of course she is getting tired more easily and needs a little slack.
She gets none. She's our senior Admin girl and she has always been up to the workload but recently, due to sickness of some of our other Admin staff, her workload has increased. This is one of my bones of contention. She is pregnant and has RIGHTS. The other is that she has asked to change her shift to 10am - 7pm but with no result. She did this back in November but still nothing has been done. She keeps reminding our bosses but nothing, zilch, nada.
Things came to a head for her this week when her 2 year old daughter refused to go to bed before her mummy got home. Jenny doesn't get home until well after 8pm and her daughter needs to go to bed by 7pm or she will get over-tired and be extra cranky the next morning. So she raised the issue again and still got no joy.
I told her to go to HR and after a little bit of bullying, she did. They told her to fill in a form for Flexible Working Hours, which she did and I took it back up to HR for her. Suddenly, all the bosses wanted to help Jenny and they even told her that if she needs to leave work at 7pm on Monday, she can, even if the new hours have not yet been put in place. We are now certain that they will.
Now all we need to do is to persuade the bosses to cut her some slack with the workload. She only has 5 weeks left before her maternity leave and when she leaves it will be noticed. She does an enormous amount of work and who will be able to fill her shoes?
Well, these issues are very close to my heart because they involve a very good friend of mine and the daughter of another very good friend. They have both roused me from my usual apathy and driven me to act! Hopefully, my actions will help them out, if only a little.
Let's start with Goodwill Jennifer. She sits next to me at work. She covers a very awkward shift, 11am - 8pm, which is invaluable to our bosses and also to me and my co-workers because we only need work one of those shifts per week. Jenny is pregnant and she's blooming. She suits pregnancy so well but of course she is getting tired more easily and needs a little slack.
She gets none. She's our senior Admin girl and she has always been up to the workload but recently, due to sickness of some of our other Admin staff, her workload has increased. This is one of my bones of contention. She is pregnant and has RIGHTS. The other is that she has asked to change her shift to 10am - 7pm but with no result. She did this back in November but still nothing has been done. She keeps reminding our bosses but nothing, zilch, nada.
Things came to a head for her this week when her 2 year old daughter refused to go to bed before her mummy got home. Jenny doesn't get home until well after 8pm and her daughter needs to go to bed by 7pm or she will get over-tired and be extra cranky the next morning. So she raised the issue again and still got no joy.
I told her to go to HR and after a little bit of bullying, she did. They told her to fill in a form for Flexible Working Hours, which she did and I took it back up to HR for her. Suddenly, all the bosses wanted to help Jenny and they even told her that if she needs to leave work at 7pm on Monday, she can, even if the new hours have not yet been put in place. We are now certain that they will.
Now all we need to do is to persuade the bosses to cut her some slack with the workload. She only has 5 weeks left before her maternity leave and when she leaves it will be noticed. She does an enormous amount of work and who will be able to fill her shoes?
Thursday, 15 February 2007
Jester and Jester Junior
I just wanted to offer my sincere apologies to my daughter, whose blog I pimp shamelessly on this site (okay, I'm exaggerating, I have merely put a link to it from this site). It took me three attempts to get the name of her blog right. Obviously, I am not the mother of PC Copperfield, Mr Chalk or Inspector Gadget. I'd love to take the credit of being the parent of my friends at Prawn Cufflinks but I cannot. However, if you do get a spare minute, please click on the link for The Journal of a Complete Groover. It's quirky and lovely and I love reading about myself in it. I will also add other blogs of note to the list as I get around to it.
Tuesday, 13 February 2007
Jester, Delusions and Health Visitors
I closed a complaint yesterday. Actually, I probably closed more than one but this one was significant. It had posed me a really difficult question. At what point does an untruth become a lie?
The point is, this particular customer has mental health problems and is delusional and I really did not know what to believe and what to disbelieve. Some of it was hard, proven fact. Like the damage caused to her property by our contractors. Some of it was in her head and not a matter of fact at all - she claims to be a psychological profiler for the police.
I honestly believe that she believed everything she told me but it made it so difficult for me to sift truth from delusion and therefore deal with her complaint. In the end, I gave up. We sorted out the physical damage, some of which may not have been caused by our contractors and I made a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience etc.
Well, this got me thinking yesterday. I was trying to work out if some of the claims she had made were based in fact. For instance, one where she said that the contractors had sneaked up to her door, pushed a card through and then legged it for the van and driven off at speed so they wouldn't need to go in and do any work.
I don't think that is normal behaviour for our engineers. They don't get paid as much if they don't go in the house and money is a ruling motive for us all. Then I remembered our Health Visitor from all those years ago. She used to do the same thing. We'd be pottering around the house and we'd hear the letterbox go. The card would be on the doormat saying she'd called but nobody had been at home. That brought a wave of nostalgia although why I should feel nostalgic about somebody who wanted nothing to do with me or my children, I don't know.
Well, to bring this pointless blog to an end. I plucked a figure out of the air and offered it to her as a gesture of goodwill. She asked me to increase it by a certain amount and I did, readily. The complaint is now closed but I do get the impression she will ring me again. I think she enjoyed our chats. I know I did and she's a lovely lady, delusional or not. She's going to send me some of her poems as a thankyou and I'm really looking forward to receiving them. I will treasure them for the rest of my life.
Oh and by the way. She wasn't lying. She believed every word she told me.
The point is, this particular customer has mental health problems and is delusional and I really did not know what to believe and what to disbelieve. Some of it was hard, proven fact. Like the damage caused to her property by our contractors. Some of it was in her head and not a matter of fact at all - she claims to be a psychological profiler for the police.
I honestly believe that she believed everything she told me but it made it so difficult for me to sift truth from delusion and therefore deal with her complaint. In the end, I gave up. We sorted out the physical damage, some of which may not have been caused by our contractors and I made a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience etc.
Well, this got me thinking yesterday. I was trying to work out if some of the claims she had made were based in fact. For instance, one where she said that the contractors had sneaked up to her door, pushed a card through and then legged it for the van and driven off at speed so they wouldn't need to go in and do any work.
I don't think that is normal behaviour for our engineers. They don't get paid as much if they don't go in the house and money is a ruling motive for us all. Then I remembered our Health Visitor from all those years ago. She used to do the same thing. We'd be pottering around the house and we'd hear the letterbox go. The card would be on the doormat saying she'd called but nobody had been at home. That brought a wave of nostalgia although why I should feel nostalgic about somebody who wanted nothing to do with me or my children, I don't know.
Well, to bring this pointless blog to an end. I plucked a figure out of the air and offered it to her as a gesture of goodwill. She asked me to increase it by a certain amount and I did, readily. The complaint is now closed but I do get the impression she will ring me again. I think she enjoyed our chats. I know I did and she's a lovely lady, delusional or not. She's going to send me some of her poems as a thankyou and I'm really looking forward to receiving them. I will treasure them for the rest of my life.
Oh and by the way. She wasn't lying. She believed every word she told me.
Friday, 9 February 2007
Jester, Gemma and Overtime Incentives
There have been rumblings of discontent at the Dark Satanic Mill over the last couple of days. Perhaps I should be more specific and state that rumblings have broken out in the complaints department, of which I am proud to be a member.
December, January and February are very busy months for us and we always have higher levels of sickness absence at this time of the year that at others. This leaves us with ridiculous workloads, not enough staff and complaints getting older and older.
In time-honoured fashion, our directors have come up with a great idea to help us get over this annual hiccup in our performance: they pay us to come in and do overtime. Their first hurdle is the part-time staff. You do not become eligible for overtime rates until you have worked 40 hours in a week. When I was a part-timer, I would not work overtime because I did not want to give up my spare time for no extra reward.
They managed to get over that hurdle this year by agreeing to pay overtime rates to part-time staff who did overtime and thereby got me to agree to come in on a couple of my precious Saturdays. The workload did not decrease significantly so they needed us to work more overtime and so they agreed to pay double-time instead of the usual time and a half. One of our managers sent an e-mail to the department as a whole saying that any overtime worked would be paid at double time while we were in this sticky position.
Time for more explanations. Our department comprises Complaints Handlers, including me, and Support Staff. I don't need to explain what Complaints Handlers do but our Support Staff log the post, set up complaints on our computer system, send out letters to our customers (we acknowledge their complaints and then let them know periodically that we have not forgotten about them and then confirm in writing any complaints closed over the phone) and do myriad other administrative tasks.
We wouldn't grind to a halt without our Support Staff but the department would not run anywhere near as efficiently as it does now. I think they do a wonderful job and they have exactly the same problems as the Complaints Handlers, too much work and not enough people to do it.
Well, it transpired two days ago that this wonderful incentive of double time applies to Complaints Handlers only. Support Staff would only get the more usual time and a half. It was unfortunate that they had already come in to do some overtime and were finding out for the first time that they would not getting double time. Of course, this caused a furore and I, not wishing to stand by and do nothing, sent an e-mail to our top manager explaining how valuable a job our Support Staff do, how their workloads are at ridiculous levels too and how it is simply not fair to treat them differently.
The answer came back saying that the double time incentive had been approved at Director Level and all they were interested in was how many complaints get closed. Administrative Tasks are below the radar.
We then pointed out that the e-mail had gone to every member of the Department and had not specified that the double time is for Complaints Handlers only. The reply was that this would be fed back to the manager who sent the e-mail. The first concession was that Support Staff would get paid double time if they closed complaints. The second was that any overtime they had worked up to that point would be paid double-time regardless of what they had been doing.
This left my friend and colleague Goodwill Gemma still out in the cold. She is registered disabled and part of her disability is that she cannot handle angry customers over the telephone. This would inevitably lead to panic attacks and she would most likely need to go home or even need medical attention. She asked me if she should e-mail the managers and use the word discrimination in her message. I advised her to use it liberally, I was still fuming on their behalf.
She got her reply. She can close complaints in writing and get paid double time like the rest of us. So the mutiny was over.
It still leaves the problem and it is well recognised by everybody in the department. We are chronically understaffed, over-worked and worst of all under-valued. Sometimes I really hate Directors.
December, January and February are very busy months for us and we always have higher levels of sickness absence at this time of the year that at others. This leaves us with ridiculous workloads, not enough staff and complaints getting older and older.
In time-honoured fashion, our directors have come up with a great idea to help us get over this annual hiccup in our performance: they pay us to come in and do overtime. Their first hurdle is the part-time staff. You do not become eligible for overtime rates until you have worked 40 hours in a week. When I was a part-timer, I would not work overtime because I did not want to give up my spare time for no extra reward.
They managed to get over that hurdle this year by agreeing to pay overtime rates to part-time staff who did overtime and thereby got me to agree to come in on a couple of my precious Saturdays. The workload did not decrease significantly so they needed us to work more overtime and so they agreed to pay double-time instead of the usual time and a half. One of our managers sent an e-mail to the department as a whole saying that any overtime worked would be paid at double time while we were in this sticky position.
Time for more explanations. Our department comprises Complaints Handlers, including me, and Support Staff. I don't need to explain what Complaints Handlers do but our Support Staff log the post, set up complaints on our computer system, send out letters to our customers (we acknowledge their complaints and then let them know periodically that we have not forgotten about them and then confirm in writing any complaints closed over the phone) and do myriad other administrative tasks.
We wouldn't grind to a halt without our Support Staff but the department would not run anywhere near as efficiently as it does now. I think they do a wonderful job and they have exactly the same problems as the Complaints Handlers, too much work and not enough people to do it.
Well, it transpired two days ago that this wonderful incentive of double time applies to Complaints Handlers only. Support Staff would only get the more usual time and a half. It was unfortunate that they had already come in to do some overtime and were finding out for the first time that they would not getting double time. Of course, this caused a furore and I, not wishing to stand by and do nothing, sent an e-mail to our top manager explaining how valuable a job our Support Staff do, how their workloads are at ridiculous levels too and how it is simply not fair to treat them differently.
The answer came back saying that the double time incentive had been approved at Director Level and all they were interested in was how many complaints get closed. Administrative Tasks are below the radar.
We then pointed out that the e-mail had gone to every member of the Department and had not specified that the double time is for Complaints Handlers only. The reply was that this would be fed back to the manager who sent the e-mail. The first concession was that Support Staff would get paid double time if they closed complaints. The second was that any overtime they had worked up to that point would be paid double-time regardless of what they had been doing.
This left my friend and colleague Goodwill Gemma still out in the cold. She is registered disabled and part of her disability is that she cannot handle angry customers over the telephone. This would inevitably lead to panic attacks and she would most likely need to go home or even need medical attention. She asked me if she should e-mail the managers and use the word discrimination in her message. I advised her to use it liberally, I was still fuming on their behalf.
She got her reply. She can close complaints in writing and get paid double time like the rest of us. So the mutiny was over.
It still leaves the problem and it is well recognised by everybody in the department. We are chronically understaffed, over-worked and worst of all under-valued. Sometimes I really hate Directors.
Wednesday, 7 February 2007
Jester, Exploding Boilers and Manager Call-backs
Full time hours are not going too badly and the tiredness is becoming less of an issue for me but I'm now full of a cold so I have a sore throat, stuffed up/runny nose and I'm sneezing fit to burst. Never mind, I'm happy to keep going into work, safe in the knowledge that I'll be spreading my germs like nobody's business and also staying out of trouble. You see my company has a sickness policy - if you are still breathing, you have to come into work. Some forward thinkers are trying to make even death no excuse for taking time off work.
My reasonable gentleman, mentioned in the last blog, who went straight to the top settled for a nice figure yesterday - nicer for him than the company but I am a generous jester so that's one complaint closed.
I was investigating another yesterday and today and I was struck at the lengths some people will go to to speak to a manager. This particular person was having trouble with her boiler and was unhappy with how long her claim was taking so she rang our help-line and told one of my colleagues that her boiler had exploded and blown one of the walls off her house, causing £340,000 worth of damage.
She got her manager call back quickly enough, I can imagine the poor fellow running to find a manager and breathlessly telling her what had happened. The manager rang her back and she explained that the boiler had not exploded and the wall was still where it had been the previous day and probably had been since the house had been built. She told the hapless manager that she had thought that that was the only way to get a response from our company. The manager explained that she had only needed to ask for a manager to call her back and one would have done so.
I would say that that is being economical with the truth. We have a team of people to make manager call backs and none of them are managers. Of course, if the customer is still not happy then we may get a manager to call back but it might just go to a slightly more experienced member of staff. I suppose if you're insistent enough, you may get to speak to a manager but we try to look after them as much as possible.
Fortunately, most of our customers do not feel the need to make such claims to get a manager to call back and of course, this one provided me and my colleagues with a great deal of amusement along the way.
My reasonable gentleman, mentioned in the last blog, who went straight to the top settled for a nice figure yesterday - nicer for him than the company but I am a generous jester so that's one complaint closed.
I was investigating another yesterday and today and I was struck at the lengths some people will go to to speak to a manager. This particular person was having trouble with her boiler and was unhappy with how long her claim was taking so she rang our help-line and told one of my colleagues that her boiler had exploded and blown one of the walls off her house, causing £340,000 worth of damage.
She got her manager call back quickly enough, I can imagine the poor fellow running to find a manager and breathlessly telling her what had happened. The manager rang her back and she explained that the boiler had not exploded and the wall was still where it had been the previous day and probably had been since the house had been built. She told the hapless manager that she had thought that that was the only way to get a response from our company. The manager explained that she had only needed to ask for a manager to call her back and one would have done so.
I would say that that is being economical with the truth. We have a team of people to make manager call backs and none of them are managers. Of course, if the customer is still not happy then we may get a manager to call back but it might just go to a slightly more experienced member of staff. I suppose if you're insistent enough, you may get to speak to a manager but we try to look after them as much as possible.
Fortunately, most of our customers do not feel the need to make such claims to get a manager to call back and of course, this one provided me and my colleagues with a great deal of amusement along the way.
Monday, 5 February 2007
Jester and her Baptism of Fire
Yesterday, I went back on full-time hours. I went part-time last summer because of stress but earlier this year I realised that I was able to cope with full time work again. Actually, I was missing the money but please don't tell anybody. So I went full-time again as of 05 February 2007 and what a baptism of fire it was me.
For a start, I do one late shift a week on a rolling rota and it just so turned out that I was on a late (11am - 8pm) on my first day back. I was exhausted by 12, which obviously didn't bode well for the rest of the day.
On top of that I picked up two thoroughly nasty complaints to deal with. One, a claim for compensation of £8,000 because a customer was left with a collapsed and overflowing drain for a lengthy period and another was a complaint to the Chairman of the Board. Yes, we pick those up too. Fortunately, the gentleman who went straight to the top appeared to be a pleasant and reasonable man during my brief telephone conversation with him.
Oh yes and we're badly short-staffed at the moment because of sickness and staff leaving so the telephones were going all day.
Well, I made it and I'm now ready for another 8 hours at work today. Fortunately, I finish at 5pm tonight so hopefully I won't spend the evening asleep on the sofa like I did yesterday. My husband is a policeman and consequently works stupid shifts. He was highly amused by my weary and drawn face last night and was still laughing this morning when he realised I was doing my first ever quick changeover.
My shifts are still infinitely better than his so I'll probably end up having the last laugh.
For a start, I do one late shift a week on a rolling rota and it just so turned out that I was on a late (11am - 8pm) on my first day back. I was exhausted by 12, which obviously didn't bode well for the rest of the day.
On top of that I picked up two thoroughly nasty complaints to deal with. One, a claim for compensation of £8,000 because a customer was left with a collapsed and overflowing drain for a lengthy period and another was a complaint to the Chairman of the Board. Yes, we pick those up too. Fortunately, the gentleman who went straight to the top appeared to be a pleasant and reasonable man during my brief telephone conversation with him.
Oh yes and we're badly short-staffed at the moment because of sickness and staff leaving so the telephones were going all day.
Well, I made it and I'm now ready for another 8 hours at work today. Fortunately, I finish at 5pm tonight so hopefully I won't spend the evening asleep on the sofa like I did yesterday. My husband is a policeman and consequently works stupid shifts. He was highly amused by my weary and drawn face last night and was still laughing this morning when he realised I was doing my first ever quick changeover.
My shifts are still infinitely better than his so I'll probably end up having the last laugh.
Friday, 2 February 2007
Jester, Saul and the Accusation of Theft
Let me tell you a little about the Dark Satanic Mill. Strictly speaking, it is an assistance company, working on behalf of insurance companies. Our remit is to get plumbers or gas engineers or electricians or other tradesmen to our customers in times of crisis. We have a network of approved contractors, some of which have been working with us for many years. I work in the complaints department and so have to deal with complaints about them.
I received a call from Saul, one of our contractors, on Wednesday. He asked me to see if I could find a letter that one of our policy holders, Ms X, had sent to us. He explained that his partner, Jim, had been accused by another policy holder, let's call him Mr Y, the neighbour of our correspondent, of stealing £200.00 from his house when he was there on a job. Saul gave me the postcode and I found the letter. It was a marvellous character reference for Jim, explaining that he had worked quickly and efficiently. He had only entered the house in company with Ms X and had been polite and courteous but, when it had become evident that he would have to go onto the neighbouring property to complete the repair, he had refused.
Mr Y had already told Ms X that a plumber from our company had stolen some money from his house but she had told him to look closer to home. Ms X questioned Jim and he confirmed that he had been accused of stealing money and therefore would not go back on the property. She went on to tell us that she had told her neighbour he should look closer to home for the culprit and not to accuse Water Company employees (many of our customers confuse us with the Water Company) with no evidence to back him up.
She explained further that Mr Y has two grown up children living with him. His son is 19 and prefers not to work and his daughter, a young unmarried mother, who apparently takes drugs, lives there with her baby. On the day that Jim visited, his daughter had a friend with her, a girl who is a well-known drug dealer in the area. Of course, Ms X believes that the drug dealing friend took the money and she wanted to tell us so that Jim would not get in trouble.
Her main problem though, was that her pipe could not be repaired unless Jim went onto Mr Y's property and she had wanted our company to resolve this problem. This had all been done by our Call Centre and Saul told me that the repair was being dealt with.
Saul asked me to show the letter to Spencer, the Area Network Manager, and asked if we had done anything about Mr Y's accusation. I checked our records and told him that at the time of the accusation, we had advised Mr Y to report the theft to the police but had not taken it any further. Saul was evidently relieved about this (so was I, it was nice to see our Call Centre follow a sensible course of action) and I told him that I would show the letter to Spencer when he was in the office the following day.
This I did and Spencer told me that he heard about the accusation but had never believed a word of it. Personally, I believe Saul, Jim and Ms X. You get a feel for contractors in my job and this lot are one of the best we have. As for Jim stealing money from a policy holder, well, it's laughable. I'd sooner believe that our resource planners are not a bunch of power-mad, jumped up gauleiters.
I received a call from Saul, one of our contractors, on Wednesday. He asked me to see if I could find a letter that one of our policy holders, Ms X, had sent to us. He explained that his partner, Jim, had been accused by another policy holder, let's call him Mr Y, the neighbour of our correspondent, of stealing £200.00 from his house when he was there on a job. Saul gave me the postcode and I found the letter. It was a marvellous character reference for Jim, explaining that he had worked quickly and efficiently. He had only entered the house in company with Ms X and had been polite and courteous but, when it had become evident that he would have to go onto the neighbouring property to complete the repair, he had refused.
Mr Y had already told Ms X that a plumber from our company had stolen some money from his house but she had told him to look closer to home. Ms X questioned Jim and he confirmed that he had been accused of stealing money and therefore would not go back on the property. She went on to tell us that she had told her neighbour he should look closer to home for the culprit and not to accuse Water Company employees (many of our customers confuse us with the Water Company) with no evidence to back him up.
She explained further that Mr Y has two grown up children living with him. His son is 19 and prefers not to work and his daughter, a young unmarried mother, who apparently takes drugs, lives there with her baby. On the day that Jim visited, his daughter had a friend with her, a girl who is a well-known drug dealer in the area. Of course, Ms X believes that the drug dealing friend took the money and she wanted to tell us so that Jim would not get in trouble.
Her main problem though, was that her pipe could not be repaired unless Jim went onto Mr Y's property and she had wanted our company to resolve this problem. This had all been done by our Call Centre and Saul told me that the repair was being dealt with.
Saul asked me to show the letter to Spencer, the Area Network Manager, and asked if we had done anything about Mr Y's accusation. I checked our records and told him that at the time of the accusation, we had advised Mr Y to report the theft to the police but had not taken it any further. Saul was evidently relieved about this (so was I, it was nice to see our Call Centre follow a sensible course of action) and I told him that I would show the letter to Spencer when he was in the office the following day.
This I did and Spencer told me that he heard about the accusation but had never believed a word of it. Personally, I believe Saul, Jim and Ms X. You get a feel for contractors in my job and this lot are one of the best we have. As for Jim stealing money from a policy holder, well, it's laughable. I'd sooner believe that our resource planners are not a bunch of power-mad, jumped up gauleiters.
Thursday, 1 February 2007
Jay, the resource planner and the disciplinary
Tales from the Dark Satanic Mill
My friend Jay had a disciplinary hearing at work yesterday. I know Jay from work. I don’t socialise with him outside work but I think of him as a friend. I digress, as usual. The first I heard of it was when a mutual friend told me that two people from her team had been suspended. One was suspended because he was talking in an Asian language (she didn’t know which although from the demographic of my Asian co-workers, I would hazard a guess at Gujerati). The other was Jay and he had been suspended for telling a resource planner to “F*** off”. I actually think he should be commended, not suspended.
I suspect that all call centres (and the Dark Satanic Mill is a call centre, of course) have resource planners. When people work on telephones, you need somebody there to make sure that they are taking calls and not sat on “After Call Work” or whatever jargon is available to describe having your phone set to unavailable. Resource planners are a necessary evil but the job seems to attract people of the same ilk as Traffic Wardens.
Actually, my husband is a policeman (he introduced me to The Policeman’s Blog and couple of others I will have to mention). They now have a resource planner and guess what? He’s an ex-traffic warden. So apt!
Our resource planners are a mixed bunch but when your job entails ringing people up and telling them to go back on available or ringing their managers and asking them to tell them to go back on available, it tends to affect ones personality in a strange way. I suppose I’m trying to say that they end up power-mad individuals.
Well, back to Jay. We’re very busy at work at the moment and although he was suspended, he was allowed in to work overtime. Strange Alice-through-the-Looking-Glass-thinking. I had a chat with him and asked him the truth of the matter. He said that the resource planner in question had told him to terminate a call because he believed it was a personal call. He had refused to do so because it was not and he was not going to terminate a business call and it escalated from there.
I do think that if I had been told to terminate a call, even a personal call, I would have reacted in the same way but then, our resource planners seem to be a bit scared of me. When I’m on “After Call Work”, they ring up and say “Did you know you’re on ACW?” and I say yes or no depending on whether I knew or not. I frequently leave my phone on the “toilet state” and just tell them I had the squits. I’ve never been disciplined. I think the answer is I work in the complaints department, I’ve worked for the company since most of the resource planners were in short pants (or pigtails) and Jay doesn’t and hasn’t.
He had the union in to represent him yesterday so I’m hopeful that all went well and he won’t be so jumpy for much longer. He’s a good lad and a good worker and the company would be downright bloody stupid to sack him for telling some jumped-up little squirt to eff off!
Goodwill Jester 02 February 2007.
My friend Jay had a disciplinary hearing at work yesterday. I know Jay from work. I don’t socialise with him outside work but I think of him as a friend. I digress, as usual. The first I heard of it was when a mutual friend told me that two people from her team had been suspended. One was suspended because he was talking in an Asian language (she didn’t know which although from the demographic of my Asian co-workers, I would hazard a guess at Gujerati). The other was Jay and he had been suspended for telling a resource planner to “F*** off”. I actually think he should be commended, not suspended.
I suspect that all call centres (and the Dark Satanic Mill is a call centre, of course) have resource planners. When people work on telephones, you need somebody there to make sure that they are taking calls and not sat on “After Call Work” or whatever jargon is available to describe having your phone set to unavailable. Resource planners are a necessary evil but the job seems to attract people of the same ilk as Traffic Wardens.
Actually, my husband is a policeman (he introduced me to The Policeman’s Blog and couple of others I will have to mention). They now have a resource planner and guess what? He’s an ex-traffic warden. So apt!
Our resource planners are a mixed bunch but when your job entails ringing people up and telling them to go back on available or ringing their managers and asking them to tell them to go back on available, it tends to affect ones personality in a strange way. I suppose I’m trying to say that they end up power-mad individuals.
Well, back to Jay. We’re very busy at work at the moment and although he was suspended, he was allowed in to work overtime. Strange Alice-through-the-Looking-Glass-thinking. I had a chat with him and asked him the truth of the matter. He said that the resource planner in question had told him to terminate a call because he believed it was a personal call. He had refused to do so because it was not and he was not going to terminate a business call and it escalated from there.
I do think that if I had been told to terminate a call, even a personal call, I would have reacted in the same way but then, our resource planners seem to be a bit scared of me. When I’m on “After Call Work”, they ring up and say “Did you know you’re on ACW?” and I say yes or no depending on whether I knew or not. I frequently leave my phone on the “toilet state” and just tell them I had the squits. I’ve never been disciplined. I think the answer is I work in the complaints department, I’ve worked for the company since most of the resource planners were in short pants (or pigtails) and Jay doesn’t and hasn’t.
He had the union in to represent him yesterday so I’m hopeful that all went well and he won’t be so jumpy for much longer. He’s a good lad and a good worker and the company would be downright bloody stupid to sack him for telling some jumped-up little squirt to eff off!
Goodwill Jester 02 February 2007.
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